PHILADELPHIA -- If Halloween was the appropriate night for the final concert at The Spectrum in Philadelphia – All Hallows Eve on hallowed ground – then Pearl Jam provided a fitting end to 42 years of concerts there: A long, exciting night of mostly treats, with a few tricks.

No, the band didn’t, as rumored, play until 2 a.m. or later – although their 3 ½-hour show came pretty close; they finally left the stage for good at 12:30 a.m.

Nor did rumored guest appearances by Bruce Springsteen nor Billy Joel nor Neil Young materialize (although Pearl Jam did close the main portion of the night by playing a scorching version of Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World" and a photographer who saw the night's set list said one of the first few

And work Pearl Jam did, through an amazing – and exhausting – 42 songs (for 42 years, get it?), making it 11 songs and 15 minutes longer than Bruce Springsteen’s finale show 11 days earlier.

They even joined the many costumed members of the sold-out – and supremely stoked – audience by, just before midnight , putting on the yellow hazard suits and red flower-pot hats of Devo and playing a ragged but fun cover of that band’s “Whip It.”

The evening had the feel of a tribute from the start. After a film montage of Spectrum highlights of the 76ers’ and Flyers’ and more, and the trumpeted introduction from the “Rocky” films, Vedder – wearing boxing gloves that he then threw to the crowd – took the stage with his band and, with his simple “This is it!” kicked into an appropriate “Why Go.”

It was the first of many seeming references to the shows being a finale, several from Vedder.

Four songs into the show, after an incendiary “Severed Hand,” with Pearl Jam burning hot and the audience showing no signs of its delirium waning, the lead singer said, “This is how we do it if they’re going to tear the place down.”

“I don’t want this place to go,” he said. “I don’t even want to think about it. Let’s just keep playing [darned] rock ‘n’ roll, man.”

Later, after “The Fixer” – another song that one could take for being about The Spectrum, Vedder said: “We would have been here no matter what. If it were the [darned] circus, we would have showed up for the last time.”

And then, an hour into the show, during “Don’t Call Me Daughter,” Vedder said, “The Greeks, the Romans, they kept their coliseums. Why can’t we keep this one? … Elvis played here!” And the band segued into Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick in the Wall,” which Vedder ended with the lyric: “Leave this building alone!”

And while the band didn’t bring any musical guests onstage, they did bring up stagehand Charlie DiFabio, 89, of Havertown, who Vedder said has been at the Spectrum since it opened and had been at “almost every show.” They also had a Vegas showgirl carry a placard – ala a boxing card girl – showing the score of the Phillies-Yankees World Series game next door.

The show wasn’t just about memories. The music was pretty great, too.

The songs ranged from the touching “Just Breathe,” with Vedder on acoustic guitar backed by the string quartet and “The End,” with Vedder in a spotlight singing another Spectrum reference, “I’m here, but not much longer,” to “Even Flow,” during which Vedder donned devil horns and guitarist Mike McCready – who was smokin’ all night – played a long solo, even dropping to his knees.

As they have during their entire four-night stand, which began Wednesday, the band dug deep into its catalog for rarities such as “Out of My Mind,” which Vedder said an anonymous donor had pledged “a large amount of money” to charity if they played. “Tell that guy to get out his check!” Vedder said. The crowd even sang the lyrics to that and other obscure songs.

And Pearl Jam played the requisite hits, including “Jeremy” during a seven-song set with a string quartet; an anthemic “Better Man”; and “Alive” as the second-last song in the main set.

The main set closed with “Rockin’ in the Free World,” the house lights up; red, white and blue confetti and balloons raining down on the crowd and the card girl dancing onstage with the band.

“We ain’t playing shows this long ever again,” Vedder said.

But as if the show couldn’t end, the band returned for “Yellow Ledbetter.”

Then, McCready stood alone on stage, bare-chested, and played Jimi Hendrix’s version of “The Star Spangled Banner.” The crowd, at this point berserk, screamed through it.

It was a fitting ending: America’s song for America’s showplace – probably the only way this long, wonderful run of The Spectrum could end.

Pearl Jam is one of my favorite groups ! I really like the Pearl jam song, Black . Black is also a favorite of mine. I found this really good video of black , check it out here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=an3WCm0svCs

JOHN J. MOSER has been around long enough to have seen the original Ramones in a small club in New Jersey, U2 from the fourth row of a theater and Bob Dylan's born-again tours. But he also has the number for All-American Rejects' Nick Wheeler on his cell phone, wrote the first story ever done on Jack's Mannequin and hung out in Wiz Khalifa's hotel room.

OTHER CONTRIBUTORS

JODI DUCKETT: As The Morning Call's assistant features editor responsible for entertainment, she spends a lot of time surveying the music landscape and sizing up the Valley's festivals and club scene. She's no expert, but enjoys it all — especially artists who resonated in her younger years, such as Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Tracy Chapman, Santana and Joni Mitchell.

KATHY LAUER-WILLIAMS enjoys all types of music, from roots rock and folk to classical and opera. Music has been a constant backdrop to her life since she first sat on the steps listening to her mother’s Broadway LPs when she was 2. Since becoming a mother herself, she has become well-versed on the growing genre of kindie rock and, with her son in tow, can boast she has seen a majority of the current kid’s performers from Dan Zanes to They Might Be Giants.

STEPHANIE SIGAFOOS: A Jersey native raised in Northeast PA, she was reared in a house littered with 8-tracks, 45s and cassette tapes of The Beatles, Elvis, Meatloaf and Billy Joel. She also grew up on the sounds of Reba McEntire, Garth Brooks and Tim McGraw and can be found traversing the countryside in search of the sounds of a steel guitar. A fan of today's 'new country,' she digs mainstream/country-pop crossovers like Lady Antebellum and Sugarland and other artists that illustrate the genre's diversity.